The charges stemmed from his role in duping mom-and-pop businesses and taxpayers between 2002 and 2008. It is considered the largest actual monetary-loss case ever prosecuted in the Western District of Texas, which also includes Waco, Austin, Del Rio, Alpine, Midland-Odessa and El Paso.

“There are other cases where they scheme and conspire to steal more money than that, but no case was ever as successful as this,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom McHugh, who praised IRS and agents for their work on the case.

The money was squandered on vacations, girlfriends, gambling trips to Las Vegas and other personal expenses, McHugh said. Records show Pircher had three different swanky homes, including one in the Dominion, when agents searched for him to take him into custody.

U.S. Attorney Robert Pitman described the case as “a wide ranging and complex scheme, whose simple purpose was to steal money from company payroll by diverting tax and insurance payments all for personal enrichment.”

“Pircher cheated clients and the taxpayers for years,” he said.

As part of a plea deal, Pircher has agreed to a prison term of no more than 20 years when Chief U.S. District Judge Fred Biery sentences him early next year.

The FBI and Internal Revenue Service arrested Pircher and disbarred lawyer Larry Kimes, 62, last year as part of an investigation that has lasted more than five years and resulted in charges against a handful of former executives of professional employer organizations (PEO), including Service Professionals, which had various names or related entities.

McHugh previously described Pircher and Kimes, who was disbarred by the State Bar of Texas in 1996, as ringleaders.

Authorities said the PEO companies would claim they collected and remitted to the IRS employment payroll taxes for the small businesses, when in fact they pocketed the money. The scheme included creating new firms and walking away from the tax liability, unbeknownst to the small businesses that hired them.

Besides keeping money that should have gone to taxes, the IRS and FBI said PEO executives kept money from fees for workers compensation insurance that was not provided.

Pircher served five years in federal prison for a $1.2 million bank fraud in a savings and loan matter in Austin in the 1990s, records show. After his release from prison in the late 1990s he was employed by John D. Walker II, and in time, took over management of Service Professionals.

Court records show Pircher bought a 551-acre horse-training ranch in Medina County called Paradise Farms, largely with money from one of the professional employer organization companies named in the current fraud case, United Capital Investment Group Inc.

He also used money from other PEOs he managed to help pay the $1.2 million restitution of his 1990s criminal case, according to court records.

Kimes was the lawyer who represented Pircher in his 1990s case, and also went on to be involved with the PEO companies, authorities allege. He faces trial Jan. 23 on charges that include tax fraud conspiracy, mail fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and money laundering.

Four others have pleaded guilty for their roles in the scam: Walker, John Bean, Michael Solis and Patrick Mire.

McHugh praised investigators with the IRS and FBI for peeling back layers of “the onion” to get at those responsible.

“These agents through their hard work and through their diligence, they started from the outside looking in,” McHugh said. “And then through plea (agreements), they were able to get corroboration, they were able to identify cooperators within the companies, ex-employees, some as defendants and it turned out to be what we believe to be a very successful prosecution.”

“In these white collar cases, ... when it gets right down to it, the bottom line is it's lying, cheating and stealing,” McHugh added.